U.S. Sixth Circuit Issues Temporary Stay on Execution of Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike

A federal appeals court in Cincinnati halted the scheduled lethal injection of Christa Pike, a Tennessee death-row inmate, on Wednesday morning. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued the stay at 8:17 a.m. Central Time, delaying the execution that had been set for 10 a.m. that day.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s office has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay so the execution can proceed. In a statement to the media, the office said, "> We will continue to advocate for the lawfully-imposed sentence as the courts work through this technical issue. It is common in capital cases for the defense to raise last-minute objections following decades of litigation in numerous courts. We are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to lift the stay."

Pike’s legal team argues that the state’s recent acknowledgment that she suffered childhood sexual abuse undermines earlier court findings that had treated her claims as fabricated. They contend this reversal weakens the basis for a prior ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim.

The two-judge panel granted the stay to allow more time to address the procedural question, without overturning Pike’s conviction or death sentence. One judge dissented, urging that the filing be dismissed and the execution proceed.

The case has attracted national attention because Tennessee enacted a law in 2024 permitting the death penalty for aggravated rape of a child, a statute that applies to Pike’s 2007 conviction for the murder of a classmate. Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death while her boyfriend received life imprisonment.

The Supreme Court previously denied Pike’s request for a stay based on challenges to Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol and the procedural handling of her claims. The Court also declined to hear her appeal.

Pike’s attorneys have now asked the Sixth Circuit to reopen her earlier federal habeas petition, arguing that the state’s new position on her abuse history calls into question the factual foundation of prior proceedings. The court’s decision on the matter is pending.